Informatics


Driving strategic improvements in biologics drug discovery with scientific informatics


Adoption of a scientific informatics system is essential to the success of every drug discovery organisation. However, making effective, informed decisions for adoption and implementation of these systems can be a complicated, multi- faceted process and will significantly impact the organisation. Good decisions can accelerate innovation and success, whereas poor decisions can hamstring a company for many years to come. Here we discuss many of the key factors to be considered when making such a decision, drawing from lessons learned from small molecule drug discovery, factoring in differences between small molecules and biologics, and highlighting the current status and trajectory of information technology trends.


M


odern drug discovery, utilising the con- cepts of target identification, screening, design and synthesis, can be traced


back to the 1940s, including the pioneering work of James Black, Akira Endo, Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings, among others. In the decades that immediately followed, the great majority of drugs developed were small organic molecules, with major exceptions being vaccines and synthetic human insulin. Whereas chemistry-based com- pound design could utilise Kekulé’s pioneering work on carbon chain formation over a century earlier, the discovery of the basis of biological hereditary, providing the necessary knowledge for sequence analysis and recombinant biology, was not finally determined until 1953!1. Even with the rapid progress of molecular and cellular biology that followed, the first monoclonal antibody,


Drug Discovery World Spring 2018


abciximab, was not approved in the US until December 19942. Today, in terms of both numbers of on-market entities and annual sales, small molecule drug discovery still dominates over bio- logics3. However, the latter represents a significant and growing proportion of the overall drug discov- ery industry. Is biology destined to forever follow chemistry?


We can leave that question to the philosophers – instead, here we focus on what lessons can be learned from small molecule drug discovery that can be applied to speed up the maturity of biolog- ics discovery, avoiding missteps and non-produc- tive methodologies and approaches. The ultimate goal is to make biologics discovery more produc- tive and cost-effective while developing safer, more effective drugs. During the target identification to lead optimi-


31


By Dr Andrew LeBeau


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72